"We're trying to protect the public," Director of Risk and Safety Marilyn Rivers said. "If a driver's license has been revoked or they've committed some sort of crime, we don't really have a way of tracking that."

Rivers, the Accounts Department and the Department of Public Safety have been working on updates to the city's ordinance to put in place a program to solve that.

At the time, Northrop's driver's license was suspended, but his city-issued taxi license was in good standing.

"We were at the mercy of finding out through the grapevine," city Deputy Accounts Commissioner Sharon Kellner-Byrnes said.

The City Council is setting a public hearing for its first July meeting to discuss changes to the city's ordinance that would implement the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles LENS Program, a system that notifies the city when a change is made to a driver's license.

The program is already in place for the city's Department of Public Works drivers, as well as police, firefighters and anyone else who drives city vehicles.

The DMV contacts Rivers whenever a driver gets a ticket, gets in an accident or a license expires, is suspended or is revoked.

Rivers will then notify the appropriate people. Accounts Commissioner John Franck can then circumstantially suspend or revoke the taxi license.

The driver is entitled to a hearing over the suspension, a system that has been in place for years for instances in which taxi drivers are accused of charging customers more than the set taxi rates or any other violation of the ordinance.

The ordinance update also will require drivers to post a "Taxi Rider's Bill of Rights" in the cab, something City Hall employees have been working up.

The draft set of rights includes: being able to choose the route the cab takes, that the cab driver speak English and know the geography of the city, air conditioning or heat upon request, a "noise-free trip with no horn honking, obscene language or radio," a clean cab "free of smoke and scent" and the right to decline to tip the driver "because of poor service."

Though the bill of rights is proposed in conjunction with the ordinance, Kellner-Byrnes said it will not be grounds for a driver to lose his or her license.

"They are just rights you are entitled to (as a passenger)," she said.

The first public hearing is expected to be set for July 2, to be followed by another public hearing and a City Council vote.